Plastic file boxes are your friend!

Our apartment is tiny, there's just no room for a filing cabinet. As things stand now, my iMac is set up on a tiny old fashioned desk (built before manilla folders, I think).
We have one (1) built in desk with no drawers, but cabinets above it. In its defense, it is a huge desk, 5 feet, so there's a decent amount of room. My husband gets this desk, and we store the file boxes underneath it. One box is special, it's the 'Current' box - it has our tickler file, the files for the current years bills, and anything else we use regularly. It has a compartment in it's top, where we keep spare pens, deposit slips, white out, paperclips, etc.

It's not ideal. But it works.

Thanks for your help.

I'm currently researching file boxes. I'm trying to locate a ready-made tickler file system instead of making one of my own. Should be easy huh? Do these things exist?

Anyway I'll plod on.

Thanks again

Jason

Jason, I agree - get some portable plastic file boxes. They range in size, depending on how many files you have. Some people just use cardboard banker's boxes instead.

For the tickler, you can simply make your own using 43 folders and label them yourself: 1-31 and Jan-Dec. Some people like to use the same tab alignment for the folders, e.g., left for days, middle for months.

If you had a bit more room, you could try the classic "door-on-two-filing-cabinets" solution. An inexpensive door from the hardware store, and two inexpensive 2-drawer metal filing cabinets from the office supply store. Sounds like your space is too limited for that...

Jason,
For your small-space tickler file, try an "everyday" file. It is 1-31 and Jan-Dec all bound into an accordion-type binding. It sits on your table or desk. The accordion pleats on the left side allow for lots of expansion.

I've got one at home and one at work. Even though there's room at the office for a more traditional file drawer group of manila folders, I prefer the everyday file. I got mine at one of the big office supply chain stores. You might need to order it - I've never seen it in the store.

Office Depot:
Smead? Desktop File Sorter, A-Z
Item #: 210476

emkay

I find that all the things I tickle in a day have yet even to come close to filling a "clear pocket" which is just a thin, hole-punched plastic sheathe which goes in a notebook. That and manila folders are inexplicably difficult to locate in the UK.

Anyway, these things are thin, meaning I can easily fit them all in a 1-inch or so binder, even with other paper etc in there. They can hold maybe 50 sheets of paper in each one? Maybe more? And I never tickle anywhere close to that.

I guess the only downside is it's slightly more annoying to open/close the binder rings to rotate the sheathes. But this takes like 1 second per day, so it's not a huge deal. The major advantage is that literally you can fit your tickler in an inch or possibly half inch binder, unless you're tickling... i dunno, huge stacks of paper or something. (In that case, I file the paper, and put a single sheet that reminds me where I put it).

As for filing, I just keep a stack of straight-cut folders in a drawer. I just don't have all that much paperwork in my life.

What I like about the classic tickler file (that you make yourself of file folders) rather than the 1-31 accordian-style is that "today's" file is always at the front.

There's nothing to making one -- you just put 1-31 on folders, and Jan-Dec on other folders, and it's made. If you get the PTouch Labeler (which I definitely recommend) or have neat penmanship (I don't, which is why I like the PTouch) they look as nice if not nicer than something you'd buy.

One tip that someone shared here that I've really liked is this --

Since you presumably are going to pull "today's" file first thing, and put it in your inbox "to do" today --

Anything new that comes in today that doesn't have an obvious process attached to it can go in "tomorrow's" file to get processed tomorrow, if you like. It keeps your desk and mind clear.

This is definitely something I use, and that I love about the tickler. Sometimes, especially late in the day, if I'm getting new incoming items to work on, I'll review it quickly to see if it supercedes anything I'm currently working on, and if it doesn't, then I'll throw it in the tickler for tomorrow, and I actually process it the following morning when I've got a clear slate ahead of me, and nothing has been started.